By Stuart Brett

Ada was the first to express the potential for computers outside mathematics and her theory of how computer sequenced music could be achieved was incredibly accurate. 115 years later, the University of Manchester’s Ferranti Mark 1 computer performed what is believed to be the very first computer score. The program, which was a composition of Blah Blah Black Sheep was written by Christopher Strachey, a maths master at Harrow and a friend of computing legend Alan Turing.

As part of Ada Lovelace Day, a celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), I’ll be taking part in a workshop to demonstrate the capabilities of today’s modern computer software, and to put a twist on things, we’ll be coding our tunes in Sonic Pi – an incredibly intuitive and fun way to write and play music on a Raspberry Pi. We’ll be handing out these compact little cardboard cut-outs on the day, but I also wanted to make these available to anyone who owns a Raspberry Pi and would like their own Ada Lovelace-themed computer case. You can also try out our Sonic Pi tutorial here.